Om Nom Nom: Dig in to Prey and Predators

Hedgehogs eat frogs and frogs eat flies. Maybe you can score big by playing a frog to nab the many flies on the board, but another player might guess what you’re after and play a hedgehog to eat your frog!

Om Nom Nom is a twenty minute game, all about guessing what card your opponents are going to play and either trying to avoid them or using a predator to eat their prey.

Gameplay

There are three game boards which are placed in the center of the table. Each board is divided into three layers with a predator animal on top, a smaller prey animal in the middle, and a food type at the bottom that the prey animal eats. Each player then takes a deck of cards. These decks all have the same six cards in them, one card for each of the six animals spread across the boards.

Om Nom Nom takes place over three rounds. At the beginning of each round you roll fifteen dice. The results these dice can roll are food types or the smaller prey animals. You place the dice on the boards according to what they rolled.

Finally, players each select a card from their deck to play and simultaneously reveal it, placing the animal where it belongs on the game boards. Played predator animals eat any prey animal dice and cards on the same board with it. If played prey animals are not eaten, they eat the food dice on the board.

More than one player may play the same animal card. If the amount of food is more than the animal cards played, the food is evenly divided among the players — any leftover cards that cannot be evenly distributed are discarded and leftover dice remain on the board. However, if there are more cards played than food available, they eat nothing and any cards they were targeting are discarded and dice remain on the board.

If you play an animal card and it does not get eaten or discarded, you take it back and place it face up in front of you next to any dice or cards you have captured during the round.

Players continue to simultaneously play one card at a time until everyone has played all their cards. You then score one point for cards you captured as well as any of your own animal cards that were not eaten or discarded, one point for any dice that show a black result, and two points for any dice that show a red result. You then take back your deck of cards and a new round begins. The player with the highest score at the end of the three rounds wins the game.

Review

Om Nom Nom is a light little game that’s quite enjoyable. That moment when players reveal their cards is a lot of fun. Will you be eaten or will you be doing the eating? There’s a lot of suspense packed into that one moment that lends the game liveliness.

The game’s strength definitely lies in trying to guess what cards other players are going to lay down. You can look at the boards and see where the dice are and you can keep track of what cards have already been used this round. You have a lot of information available as you try to outguess your opponent, a mechanic that is always a lot of fun to play around with.

While the game does have a solo version and can be played with two players, both of these require you to have random cards played from a dummy player, which defeats what makes the game good. And the game is definitely more fun the more players you add to the mix.

Om Nom Nom is a pleasant game, light and enjoyable, with solid player interaction. If you’re looking for something family friendly, that’s super easy to learn, this is a good fit for larger groups.

Pros: Great player interaction, easy to learn

Cons: Not ideal with smaller groups

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.